A Series of Educational Sites: "F"...PBS Kids!

As a Mississippi girl, I'm have enjoyed PBS Kids and PBS Teachers!! Just in case you're not familiar with PBS, I wanted to post about this site because it's pretty darn cool... for all of us--teachers, children, and parents!

This post is so much more than about PBS Kids, as the title includes. 
Let's start with the main site-- PBS.ORG! This site has created PBS Kids, PBS Teachers, and PBS Parents to name the most helpful to you...
Featuring videos, games, shows, and more, there's plenty to entertain students in an educational manner. 
Teachers...See the PBS Teachers--Kids in the Classroom! They offer a "Word of the Day," Early Childhood Resources, and quite a bit more ranging from PreK to 12th Grade. Another tidbit to check out is the Teacher Innovation Awards -Are you an Innovative Educator? See how many winners there are just in 2011! 
Parents will love this site now that school is out (or soon will be) for the summer! Mom & Dad can access activities, advice, and even recipes for quality time spent with the kiddos! Ideas are endless and perfect for those rainy days or TOO HOT days! Sign up for the PBS Parent Newsletter and stay up to date...

Want to know another great feature? 
Mobile apps are available as well! How convenient is that...for kids to watch their top fav PBS shows? A couple of these shows I remember watching when I was little!


In case you missed them, see previous posts of "A Series of Educational Sites" I've blogged about:
Educational Site A: Quizlet
Educational Site B: Arcademic Skill Builders
Educational Site C: Wonderopolis (Free Writing Printable included!)
Educational Site D: EZSchool
Educational Site E: The Problem Site

So, check out PBS Kids...and tell me what your favorite PBS show is (yes, you, the teacher/parent)? 
Was it one you watched as a child too? 
If you don't have one, what are your child's or students' favorites? 
Please share them with us in a comment below! Or, click on my signature to share your comments on my Facebook page! I'd love to see you there too!


Regards,

Assessing Comprehension with Small Group Song Performances!

Creativity is KEY in the classroom! I'm certain all of you agree. 

Constantly trying to find new ways to keep students involved in reading and comprehending literature, I've had the best time watching and listening to some rather creative song performances based on our selections we read in class!

The idea behind this activity is for students to recall details and explain perspectives, or explain story elements for example, which displays their levels of comprehension of particular texts we are reading in class or texts we have just finished reading. It's a different and fun approach to assessing comprehension that my students have very much enjoyed. 

An added incentive? Their writing skills are perfected as they work to compose lyrics on the subject matter learned and students gain more exposure in presentations! I try to get students up in front of the class quite a bit in hopes of burying "stage fright" as they approach higher grades and demands in the years to come. I find this most successful since my middle schoolers tire easily of a monotonous routine. Since my students work and deliver presentations as groups and it's a "fun" presentation to deliver, I end up eliminating some of the embarrassments that come with presentations. Variety is the spice of life!

Most entertaining to the students, besides getting to work in groups to create a song they actually sing for the class, are the performances of all groups in the class and even listening to the audio recordings of my other classes! On top of the enjoyment, students don't even realize they are gaining even more details and information from other groups' songs! 

What got me blogging about this activity today was the fact that we (my students and I) all listened to the recordings again yesterday--after the final exam! It was a nice "wind down" moment in which we went back to earlier in the school year to these songs they created and sang for the class. 

I wanted to let you know about the activity I created, Literature Response Activity: Compose Songs Based on Any Text,  with student handouts and teacher rubric, in case any of you are wrapping up, and perhaps finishing a book or story, and need a creative way to assess comprehension! Click cover image at right to read more in the product description at my TpT store, and perhaps grab this fun activity for your students. Click here to get it from Teacher's Notebook.

It can also be a great activity for other subject areas and various types of texts! Whatever the topic is, the students compose writing (songs) based on what they've learned! How much they have learned or comprehended is what we must figure out...so, why not do it with a little fun added?

Question: What is a creative activity you implement in your class to sort of "trick" your kiddos into showing what they know? I'd love to hear more ideas!! I'll tuck them away for the upcoming school year!! Thanks so much for any great ideas you would like to share here!! :) 

Be well and Happy Summer!

A Few Inspirational Summer Quotes

I love quotes, and I love Summer! So, here are a few random quotes I found out there I thought I'd post to share. I hope you enjoy!

• If you are not barefoot, you're overdressed. -unknown
• One must maintain a little bit of summer, even in the middle of winter. -Henry David Thoreau
• It's a smile, it's a kiss, it's a sip of wine...it's summertime! -Kenny Chesney
• Summertime is always the best of what might be. -Charles Bowden
• To see the Summer Sky Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie-True Poems flee. --Emily Dickinson
• In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. -Albert Camus

• Celebrate summer--sun-drenched days and starlit nights. --Gooseberry Patch
• A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. -James Dent
• A life without love is like a year without summer. -Swedish Proverb
• I've cut down on a lot of stuff this summer, just so I can hang out and be a normal kid for a while. -Ryan Sheckler (Maybe we should all do this...)
• Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air, and you. -Langston Hughes
• The bigger the summer vacation the harder the fall. -unknown
• In summer, the song sings itself. -William Carols Williams
• There shall be eternal summer in a grateful heart. -Celia Thaxter
• A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows. -St. Francis of Assisi
• Sun shining. Weather is weet. Make you wanna move your dancing feet. -Bob Marley
• The tans will fade, but the memories will last forever. -unknown
• I wonder what is would be like to live in a world where it was always June. -L.M. Montgomery

What is your favorite thing about summer? Please share the best part about summer time or a favorite quote below!

 Can you tell my school year ends this week? :)

Happy Summer!!